This follows an uproar caused by last week’s leak from the President’s Economic Advisory Council in response to a request to provide President Cyril Ramaphosa with a brief ahead of the State of the Nation Address.
“So usually when you try to apply disincentive or a penalty to somebody who’s behaving badly or their conduct is something that is inappropriate, you do so because that conduct can actually respond to that incentive. When something is systemic, then you can’t because all you are doing is penalising somebody who is already disadvantaged and that’s the vast majority of unemployed South Africans today,” adds Van den Heever.